


When The Sky Was Stormy-Gray

by Gabri



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-03
Updated: 2012-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 13:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabri/pseuds/Gabri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What are you supposed to do when your father decides you're not worth listening to before you even open your mouth?</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Sky Was Stormy-Gray

His dad isn't proud of him, and that's a common situation. All over the place, pressure and pushes and tough love. But they're in a spotlight, with a black-and-white contrast, so maybe that's why it seems so _obvious._

His dad sighs and rolls his eyes and shouts STOP if he talks too much. It's a burden for him to be in the same room. He doesn't cry about it because it's not really a cry-in-solitude situation to him, but it's frustrating, and when they start with another one-sided conversation he feels instantly out of breath.

His dad loves him, probably and apparently and according to people who don't live with them. He throws punches at the air to get his anger out because he's not going to yell everything at his parent again. That doesn't work. He sees the hopeful, hesitant looks his dad gives him, hard looks. Like he's trying to pick out the good in his son and imagine it worked. He says something cheerful and all the waves are played out.

He's said 'sorry' to those disappointed eyes sixteen times today. It's not a conscious counting, just the working of a mathematical brain with nothing else to focus on.

It's a real trick to try and do something right while still doing it _his_ way, because whenever he copies someone else that's a definite failure from the start. But 'his way' is a strange way, and it usually ends up with his dad reprimanding him in short, loud words in front of the entire village. The entire stunned-silent village, while he stands in front of him with wide eyes, trying to think of something to say other than 'sorry', because that would raise the 'sorry' count to seventeen and he's getting a little tired to saying it.

There's a point, eventually, where he's screaming at his dad LISTEN, LISTEN and he realizes with abrupt, sudden hopelessness - like a slap to the face - that nothing he can say will ever penetrate that stubborn skull of his. Probably from day one, he decided not to listen. Maybe that's why nothing ever worked and he had to keep saying sorry, sorry, sorry, until it stopped being sincere and started being instinctive.

What are you supposed to do when your father decides you're not worth listening to before you even open your mouth?

When the sky was stormy-gray and he was soaked to the bone, when his dad pulled him to shore and said 'I'm proud of you,' it felt surreal. When he blacked out and woke up injured from battle, his dad had a nervous smile on his face and when everyone hugged him he looked distant.

He never said 'I'm proud of you' again, although now he awkwardly tried to say _something_. Maybe he just isn't practiced enough at saying anything other than STOP.

He lets his dad tip-toe around him and try to figure out what to say. He wants to get up and hug him, because he's never done that before. It's not exactly common, but he's not exactly a common son, and he kind of wants to do it. But he doesn't, because there's this weird, dream-like fear in the back of his mind that if he hugs his dad, he'll suddenly break a secret spell and find out none of it was real.

His dad loves him. He does. And he loves his dad. They just never have a heart-to-heart like that. But that's fine. Everyone loves him now. The village adores him and he has a dragon companion - a soul mate - and new friends every day. He doesn't say 'sorry' anymore, and if he said LISTEN, his dad would probably listen.

But he doesn't say that, because it's not necessary...his dad is proud of him. He remembers hearing that; he plays that sentence in his head over and over again when it's raining, without really meaning to. _I'm proud of you, proud of you, proud,_ STOP. _sorry,_ LISTEN.

__

I'm proud of you.


End file.
